Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

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Gingrich: Judges Should Come From Fundie Law Schools

If you had any doubt that Newt Gingrich would turn the federal courts into an instrument for theocratic rule, this conversation on David Barton’s radio show will put that doubt to rest.

Gingrich: What you have is, the secular left, which has been using the courts to replace the America we grew up in, the secular left which is desperately committed to Roe v. Wade and abortion, desperately committed to marriage between same-sex couples becoming legitimized as if they were the same between traditional marriage between a man and a woman, desperately committed to driving God out of public life, and they are suddenly faced with the possibility that we the people are going to take back our authority, that we are going to take back our rights, that we are going to redress the balance. The level of hysteria, I predict, will grow as they come to realize at the American Bar Association and elsewhere that this really is an effort to limit the power of lawyers to redesign America.

Green: Should you become president, is there a crop of attorneys and judges out there that understand history and understand originalism that you would have to choose from, in other words it’s got to be more than just you and Congress, what about good judges?

Gingrich: You start looking at people of the caliber of Robbie George of Princeton, you look at Regent University, you look at Liberty University, you start looking around and realizing there is a whole crop – Vince Haley of University of Virginia graduate who is a deeply, deeply committed Christian who clearly understands these kinds of issues – I think people would be surprised that the Federalist Society has many members who agree that we need a balance of power between the three, not a judicial dictatorship.

Liberty University, where they teach law using the books of Christian Reconstructionists who think the Bible should be the law of the land.

Comments

What you have is, the secular left, which has been using the courts to replace the America we grew up in, the secular left which is desperately committed to Roe v. Wade and abortion, desperately committed to marriage between same-sex couples becoming legitimized as if they were the same between traditional marriage between a man and a woman, desperately committed to driving God out of public life, and they are suddenly faced with the possibility that we the people are going to take back our authority, that we are going to take back our rights, that we are going to redress the balance.

Anybody would be scared of going back in time to the Dark Ages, Newt. It wasn’t much fun for 99% of the populace.

Clear evidence of desperation as his shot at the nomination quickly dwindles. However the cost of such falsehoods is a reinforcement amongst Republican voters on a false history of the U.S., a false understanding of where the public stands – e.g., Roe, and what secularists actually argue regarding the Constitution. So the damage remains with us long after we forget his and most GOP candidate failures in Iowa.

An honest host would especially call Gingrich out when he dishonestly conflates “government” with “public life” in order to covertly promote Christian theocracy.

You start looking at people of the caliber of Robbie George of Princeton, you look at Regent University, you look at Liberty University

1) Regent and Liberty aren’t even fourth-tier universities. All they crank out is fucking morons. See: Monica Goodling.

2) Robbie George? OMFG. This is the guy who came up with the Manhattan Declaration:

Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.[12]

Except their 1 goes out the window when it comes to same-sex marriage or women having the right to bodily autonomy.

Whether the incredible irony of obviously non-religious, late life convert to Catholicism Gingrich pandering to Protestant fundamentalist authoritarians has anything to do with this, I don’t know. It probably doesn’t. They’re probably just admitting to themselves that he can’t win.

But this isn’t good news.

Romney is by far the most dangerous candidate. He can run as a fake “moderate”, with a decent shot at winning.

One more presidency of unmitigated klepto-plutocratic economics, neocon war disasters, total contempt for the common environment, and appointment of constitution-scorning right wing authoritarian plutocrats to SCOTUS and other high federal courts, and this country is done for as a developed nation.

I realize that Obama rates very poorly in terms of the first three things I list above, as well, but the difference is real.

I didn’t want to waste my energy reading the Manhattan Declaration when it came out. That excerpt is boilerplate papal blather. Is George a Catholic and are evangelicals signing on to Catholic moral theology now? Pretty funny given the deep animosity of the Vatican toward American founding principles.

Protest vote against Romney, because Romney is a Mormon and a Yankee, by a limited number of bigots. However, they would not cast these votes if they thought Gingrich would actually win the primary, because they now understand that he can’t win the general. At this point it’s pure symbolic protest.

It may seem odd that wingnuts ever thought that Gingrich could win in a general election against Obama (or against an African Grey Parrot trained to say “vote for me”, for that matter). They apparently did, for a couple of weeks. But that’s because they live in a reality-denying fantasy land.